Transcript 10/26/2007 - Rich Swanson (carryover contestant)

[BBTranscriptTeam]

Rich Swanson
Waterford, CT
Newspaper layout specialist

Rich needed two lifelines to get to the $4K level, but he still has Meredith's favorite lifeline, the ATA. She advises Rich not to look back because the lifelines are there for a reason. He shouldn't be negative.

$8K - In 2006, what philanthropist announced plans to give away 85 percent of his estimated $44 billion fortune?

A - Richard Branson
B - Ted Turner
C - Sumner Redstone
D - Warren Buffett

$16K - What is the chemical formula of dry ice?

A - CO2
B - H2O
C - H2O2
D - CO

Rich works in a pottery studio and does glazing. THe past few years he's done a crash course in chemistry (he never took it in high school). H2O is out, that's water. Rich thinks H2O2 is the formula for heavy water. He decides to ask the audience.

ATA results:
A - 60%
B - 2%
C - 21%
D - 17%

Rich decides to trust the audience and his own intuition.

Meredith says that "the best lifeline" came through for Rich.

$25K - In 2007, George W. Bush received a hero's welcome when he became the first sitting U.S. president to visit what country?

A - Norway
B - Morocco
C - Albania
D - Venezuela

Meredith asks if Rich remembers reading about this and Rich says yes. He believes it's Albania and makes that his final answer.

Commercial break

Rich only got the call to be on Millionaire a few days ago. They were out on Long Island Sound on the Mystic Sailor dinner cruise. He gets a call on his cell phone and it has a 212 area code. His boss and department head are standing nearby and he calls out, "Can I have Friday off so I can be on Millionaire?" Rich said the cruise turned into a much bigger party after that.

$50K - Expressed using old-fashioned slang terms for money, which of the following amounts is equal to twenty dollars?

A - one sawbuck & two fins
B - two fins
C - two sawbucks & one fin
D - four sawbucks

Rich had an idea that a fin is a five but he doesn't want to chance it, so he decides to switch the question. Before showing the new question Rich says he wants to guess, and says, "one sawbuck & two fins."

$50K (STQ) - Which of the following U.S. cities is not mentioned in the 1983 Huey Lewis and the News song "The Heart of Rock and Roll"?

A - Boston
B - Chicago
C - San Francisco
D - Seattle

Rich wasn't a big Huey Lewis fan but he was working in a record store at the time so he should remember this. Huey Lewis was from San Francisco and he can't imagine it wouldn't be mentioned. Meredith asks if Rich can hear the song in his head, but he can't. Rich says that if he were writing a song that would cover the nation, he wouldn't mention Seattle because that was pre-grunge. He just can't see it being important yet. Then he stops and realizes that Jimi Hendrix was from Seattle. Now he's concerned about talking himself out of the answer. He finally makes Seattle his final answer.

ANSWERS:
$8K - D (Warren Buffett)
$16K - A (CO2)
$25K - C (Albania)
$50K - A (one sawbuck & two fins)
$50K (STQ) - B (Chicago)

[NellyLunatic1980]

$50K #2: I'm glad I never would've seen this question. As many times as I've heard this song, I could recall only San Francisco, Seattle, Cleveland, and Detroit from its lyrics. My guess would've been the wrong one, Boston.

Other than that, I would've been at the $100K question with all lifelines intact.

[earendel]

Rich Swanson
Waterford, CT
Newspaper layout specialist

Rich needed two lifelines to get to the $4K level, but he still has Meredith's favorite lifeline, the ATA. She advises Rich not to look back because the lifelines are there for a reason. He shouldn't be negative.

Yes, the lifelines are there for a reason, but that reason isn't to waste them. Rich should have listened to his PAF.

$8K - In 2006, what philanthropist announced plans to give away 85 percent of his estimated $44 billion fortune?

A - Richard Branson
B - Ted Turner
C - Sumner Redstone
D - Warren Buffett

Perchik: Money is the world's curse.
Tevye: May I be smitten with such a curse! And may I never recover!

IOW, Warren, send some of those bucks my way.

$16K - What is the chemical formula of dry ice?

A - CO2
B - H2O
C - H2O2
D - CO

Rich works in a pottery studio and does glazing. THe past few years he's done a crash course in chemistry (he never took it in high school). H2O is out, that's water. Rich thinks H2O2 is the formula for heavy water. He decides to ask the audience.

Heavy water is D2O (the "D" for deuterium). The strong third-place showing for CO indicates the audience knew that dry ice was carbon dioxide but didn't know the chemical formula.

$25K - In 2007, George W. Bush received a hero's welcome when he became the first sitting U.S. president to visit what country?

A - Norway
B - Morocco
C - Albania
D - Venezuela

Meredith asks if Rich remembers reading about this and Rich says yes. He believes it's Albania and makes that his final answer.

I'll refrain from any obvious political comment on this question. Having been to Kosovo, I'm sensitive to news stories involving Albania.

Rich only got the call to be on Millionaire a few days ago. They were out on Long Island Sound on the Mystic Sailor dinner cruise. He gets a call on his cell phone and it has a 212 area code. His boss and department head are standing nearby and he calls out, "Can I have Friday off so I can be on Millionaire?" Rich said the cruise turned into a much bigger party after that.

Did they run out of contestants from other places?

$50K - Expressed using old-fashioned slang terms for money, which of the following amounts is equal to twenty dollars?

A - one sawbuck & two fins
B - two fins
C - two sawbucks & one fin
D - four sawbucks

Rich had an idea that a fin is a five but he doesn't want to chance it, so he decides to switch the question. Before showing the new question Rich says he wants to guess, and says, "one sawbuck & two fins."

elwing was watching this with me and commented that if he had taken the time to think it through, he'd have realized that a fin had to be a five, otherwise B and C would have been the same amount. My knowledge of these expressions comes from Robert Heinlein - in Time Enough for Love (IIRC) Lazarus Long sings a little ditty that refers to both of these.

$50K (STQ) - Which of the following U.S. cities is not mentioned in the 1983 Huey Lewis and the News song "The Heart of Rock and Roll"?

A - Boston
B - Chicago
C - San Francisco
D - Seattle

Rich wasn't a big Huey Lewis fan but he was working in a record store at the time so he should remember this. Huey Lewis was from San Francisco and he can't imagine it wouldn't be mentioned. Meredith asks if Rich can hear the song in his head, but he can't. Rich says that if he were writing a song that would cover the nation, he wouldn't mention Seattle because that was pre-grunge. He just can't see it being important yet. Then he stops and realizes that Jimi Hendrix was from Seattle. Now he's concerned about talking himself out of the answer. He finally makes Seattle his final answer.

Good thing I wouldn't have had this one in the regular stack because I might have gone down in flames by making "Boston" my final answer. If I had had to deal with it, it would be time to PAF or STQ because neither of the other lifelines would help. Probably go with PAF because I'm pretty sure it would be an easy Google.

[peacock2121]

I liked how he thought through the final question - even though his logic did not prove correct, at leats he thought it through, didn't just guess.

If he had only done that one the first 50K question, he would have gotten it.

[MarleysGh0st]

$16K - What is the chemical formula of dry ice?

A - CO2
B - H2O
C - H2O2
D - CO

Rich works in a pottery studio and does glazing. THe past few years he's done a crash course in chemistry (he never took it in high school). H2O is out, that's water. Rich thinks H2O2 is the formula for heavy water. He decides to ask the audience.

Has he never heard that dry ice is carbon dioxide? The chemical formula ought to be obvious, if you know that.



And, aside from the story of where he got The Call, I still can't figure out what his hook was to get a MAWG slot on this show.

[peacock2121]

MAWGs get on the show. You just have to accept that. The question is, how can you be one of the few? It might just be dumb luck.

[MarleysGh0st]

MAWGs get on the show.

I know, which is why I wanted to know about his hook.

Whatever their casting process, there's no evidence that it's random.

Arbitrary, capricious, perhaps--but not random.

[ghostjmf]

25K: I "knew" it but without surety. Fear ATA will be all over the place. 50/50

50K: I thought a sawbuck was a $20. Erp. STQ

STQ 50K: I have absolutely no idea. I don't know the song. Double Erp, & PAF